Elderly Living in Sweden : Present solutions and future trends

Abstract: The amount of people retiring in Sweden is increasing and will continue to do so in the future. Politicians have recognized a challenge in this demographic development and it is important that they act in time and in a way that satisfies the need. The disposable income for people above the age of 65 has increased the past years and continues to increase according to the Swedish Statistics forecast, this indicates that the retired people will have more money to spend on housing in the future. There are different types of living for elderly in Sweden; staying at home, senior living, secure living and nursing homes and an interesting question is if these will be adoptable in the future. New solutions, which address the demands for higher standards, will ease the social and security aspects for the residents as well as improve the work environment for the employees in the home care service business. These different solutions are not yet implemented in a large scale, but development show that they are influencing the future direction of building senior residencies. Retired couples who get ill at different times might not get to live together or near each other when they require different levels of assistance to manage daily life. Moving away from a familiar area, family and friends can be stressful. By placing different types of elderly living close to each other is a solution that might help decrease that stress. There are some solutions like this already on the market today and it is a solution worth investigating more. We believe that the availability of new and refurbished buildings needs to be more focused on easing the living for elderly people and may be achieved by implementing a certification system. Implementation and use of this certification system may create goodwill for investors and therefore force construction companies to build according to it. However a certification has to be requested by residents, municipalities and tenants, to be considered by the investors.